Sanctuary: Shattered Sun Demo Review Summary

A gorgeous spiritual successor to Supreme Commander with fun gameplay and great potential, though it remains unpolished with a clunky UI and optimization issues.

Spiritual successor to Supreme Commander: The game is widely recognized as a true spiritual successor to Supreme Commander and Total Annihilation, capturing the core gameplay, feel, and spirit of the originals. Many players note it plays exactly like Supreme Commander and scratches the itch left by the series.

Demo is enjoyable and promising: The demo is considered fun, solid, and extensive, giving a very positive impression and highlighting the game's great potential. It demonstrates the game well and has good replayability.

Game shows great potential: The game is seen as very promising with a strong foundation and many great ideas. Players believe it has the potential to become a fantastic game and one of the best RTS experiences.

Graphics are gorgeous and beautiful: The game's graphics are highly praised for being beautiful, stunning, and visually impressive. Players note the fancy new graphics, excellent visual effects, and well-done animations.

Gameplay is fun and enjoyable: The core gameplay is described as fun, pleasant, and easy to enjoy. Players are having a good time with the game and find the gameplay experience to be positive.

Game is unpolished and unfinished: Reviewers note that the game feels like an early alpha with numerous bugs, rough edges, and missing features. The overall lack of polish detracts from the experience.

UI needs major overhaul: Players consistently report that the UI is unintuitive, cluttered, and hard to read, with small icons and poor readability. Many suggest a full redesign to improve clarity and usability.

Missing quality-of-life features: Players highlight the absence of essential QoL features such as hotkeys, control groups, patrol commands, and other shortcuts. These omissions hinder gameplay and are expected in the genre.

Unit tiers and variety: Players appreciate the tiered unit system (T1-T4) and the variety of units and factions available. This adds strategic depth and replayability.

Classic RTS gameplay: The game is recognized as a real-time strategy title with classic RTS elements like base building, unit production, and resource management. This appeals to fans of the genre.

Survival mode available: A survival mode with waves of enemies is present, providing a solo challenge. Some mention multiple survival modes, adding variety.

Terrain alteration and destruction: The ability to alter terrain and destroy the map is a standout feature, with players mentioning destructible environments and nukes that change the landscape. This adds a dynamic element to battles.

Large-scale battles with many units: Players highlight the game's ability to support hundreds or thousands of units on the battlefield, emphasizing the epic scale of combat. This is a key positive feature.

Performance generally praised: Many reviewers report smooth performance, high frame rates, and good optimization across various systems, including older hardware and 4K resolutions. The game is often described as running without lag or stutter, with stable FPS in most scenarios.

Optimization issues reported: A significant number of reviewers mention the need for optimization, citing performance problems such as FPS drops, hitches, and high hardware utilization. These issues are often noted in specific scenarios like large unit counts or multiplayer.

Resolution locked at 320x200: Multiple reviewers report that the game launches or gets stuck at a very low resolution of 320x200, with no option to change it in the settings. This issue is often fixed only by switching to windowed mode and manually stretching the window, and it can reset when starting missions or opening settings.

Crashes and instability: Several reviewers experienced crashes, including during the demo, after the tutorial, or within 10-30 minutes of gameplay. Some crashes were severe enough to cause the whole PC to shut down or the GPU to overheat.

Performance issues with many units: Several reviewers note that performance degrades significantly when there are many units on the field, with FPS dropping to unplayable levels in some cases. This is a common concern for an RTS game, and reviewers hope for better optimization in large-scale battles.

Recommended for Supreme Commander fans: Multiple reviewers explicitly recommend this game to fans of Supreme Commander, Total Annihilation, and Forged Alliance, noting it captures the large-scale RTS feel. The game is seen as a worthy successor for those missing the grand RTS experience.

Highly recommended overall: A few reviewers give the game a strong overall recommendation, saying they can't recommend it enough or give it 100% approval. This reflects high satisfaction with the current state of the game.

Will buy on release: Some reviewers state they definitely plan to buy the game when it releases, indicating strong positive impressions from the demo. This shows confidence in the game's potential.

Community fair range: $20.00 - $35.00.

Session length: 2.5h.

The game is generally enjoyable from the start, with a well-received tutorial and exciting multiplayer, though some players experience early friction from tutorial pain or technical issues.

Friction: Tutorial feels painful; Broken tutorial steps; UI issues after cutscenes; Multiplayer crashes; Multiplayer locked behind paywall; Limited content in demo.

Unlock drivers: Skipping tutorial; Sandbox mode; Campaign missions; Multiplayer access; Beta access via Kickstarter.

Spiritual Successor Veteran: Macro-heavy base building, large armies, turtling, and strategic map control. Motivation: To experience a true spiritual successor to Supreme Commander and Total Annihilation with the same large-scale strategic gameplay. Stance: buy.

Cautious Critic: Evaluating and testing, focusing on UI, balance, and feature completeness rather than playing for fun. Motivation: To see innovation and polish in the RTS genre; they want the game to improve and be worth their time and money. Stance: no buy.

Kickstarter Enthusiast: Multiplayer skirmishes, testing strategies, creating content, and engaging with the dev team. Motivation: To support the game's development and be part of the community, while enjoying multiplayer and content creation opportunities. Stance: buy.

Performance is generally positive on higher-VRAM Windows systems, with mixed results on lower-VRAM and Linux setups.

Windows 12-15GB VRAM: positive. Users report consistently high frame rates (100+ FPS) and stable performance with no stutters.

Windows <8GB VRAM: mixed. While some users report smooth performance, others experience crashes, overheating, and instability.

Windows 8-11GB VRAM: positive. Most users report good performance, though a few mention optimization issues and occasional frame drops.

Steam Deck: The game exhibits severe compatibility problems on Linux/Proton, including launch failures, stuck low resolutions, and the need for external tools. While one user thanked a quick fix, the overall experience is broken for Steam Deck users.

Linux and Proton: The game is an early pre-alpha demo with notable Linux/Proton compatibility issues, primarily resolution bugs and launch failures. However, some users report a recent fix and workarounds exist, so it is not completely broken but requires tinkering.

Frequently compared to Supreme Commander: The game is overwhelmingly compared to the Supreme Commander series, with many calling it a spiritual successor or heir. Reviewers often reference Total Annihilation and Forged Alliance as well, indicating strong genre expectations.

Early development stage: The game is frequently described as being in pre-alpha or alpha state, with reviewers noting it is a demo or early build. This indicates the game is not yet feature-complete and will change over time.

Kickstarter funding and support: Many reviewers mention backing the game on Kickstarter, and the campaign is seen as successful. This funding model is a key part of the game's development and community engagement.

Lags behind Supreme Commander: Some reviewers feel the game currently falls short of Supreme Commander, citing better graphics or more content in the older title. This indicates the game has potential but is not yet on par with its inspiration.

Early Access and release status: The game is not yet released and is expected to enter Early Access on Steam. Reviewers note it is awaiting release, with a demo currently available.